In advanced semiconductor technologies, the continuing reduction in device size and increasingly complicated circuit arrangements have made the designing and fabrication of integrated circuits (ICs) more challenging and costly. Before the circuit design for the ICs is delivered for mass production, the design must be confirmed to meet the design specification and manufacturing criteria. In order to detect design errors or defects as early as possible, computer-aided circuit design tools, which assist circuit designers in identifying potential circuit errors, have become widely accepted in the semiconductor industry. However, as circuit complexity and device density continue to increase quickly, the software procedures that conduct circuit design and verification now consume a great deal of time and resources, and have difficulties in meeting the demands for circuit design. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the design flow for reducing the design cycle time while maintaining the design quality.